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12/16/2006

"Nevada state senator proposes letting teachers carry guns"

Will someone please explain to me why the discussion of what might happen completely ignores the actual historical experience that we have had with teachers and others being able to carry guns on school property? Utah, Oregon? What about all those right-to-carry states that allowed people to carry concealed handguns prior to the end of 1995?

Blind hunters haven't apparently been involved in any accidents

Apparently, there are four states that allow blind people to hunt (Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). The Texas state legislator who is pushing for Texas to allow laser sights to be used by blind hunters claimed on the radio today that in these four states there have been no recorded accidents involving blind hunters. My guess is that if an accident were to occur, it would get a lot of news attention.

12/14/2006

What I would have added to this piece is that disarmament is a relative question. The issue is whether a law disarms more law-abiding individuals or criminals. Who is more likely to obey the law? Who is more likely to find the law imposing costs on their gun ownership? The problem is that the law-abiding citizens are often the ones who care more about obeying laws.

My one complaint with the piece is that it uses numbers that I say in my book are unreliable. The purely cross-sectional comparison is made because that is what most people do, but it is very misleading and exaggerates the benefits from right-to-carry laws.

12/13/2006

"Buy a House, Get a Glock": Unfortunately only applies to law enforcement

Why limit this to law enforcement? If police understand the importance of guns for self defense, so do other people. My research shows that police are the single most important factor in reducing crime, but I think that the police understand that despite their importance and best efforts they almost always arrive on the crime scene after the crime has occurred.

Prediction: Crime rates in those five cities will not go up relative to the rest of the state. A police force or two might have troubles of different kinds, but there will not be a systematic increase in crime.

This story raises a risk of Hillary Clinton as President

During wars, government has to have the power to do things that we normally wouldn't let them do. One thing is the power to spy on others. How many times did the Clinton administration abuse those powers and how many times was Hillary involved in the question. Take the FBI file problem that arose early in the Clinton administration where the Clinton adm was asking for FBI files on Republicans.

Those dangerous cows: one thing that the media missed

Both cows and horses release a lot of methane, which is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Isn't it time that the environmentalists thank the car? Can you imagine how much "worse" things would be without the car?